Letters: Martin Luther King was a hero for all

As a family of adopted children of different races and ethnicities, including three African-Americans and three African-Asians, the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech is a joyous event. However, the politicians who have appropriated Dr. King's legacy for their own must be rebuked.

As a family of adopted children of different races and ethnicities, including three African-Americans and three African-Asians, the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech is a joyous event. However, the politicians who have appropriated Dr. King's legacy for their own must be rebuked.

I was a teenager at the time. He awakened in my generation an awareness of racial injustice not imagined or experienced by those of us raised in Utah where black or brown faces did not inhabit our neighborhoods. Dr. King, as the most visible leader of the civil rights movement, became the conscience of the nation, speaking with eloquence and conviction that riveted our attention.

Martin Luther King did not come solely to lift his black brethren; he spoke to us all, no matter our color or background. It is an affront to Dr. King's memory and a rewriting of history to claim that Dr. King was a leader of only the oppressed black community. He transcended race. He belongs to all my children, black, white, Asian, Native American and "Other race." He belongs to us all.